Jo Wood on life after being cheated on

Breaking her silence about his affair with 19-year-old Russian cocktail waitress Ekaterina Ivanova, defiant Jo even THANKS her for taking the sozzled old rocker off her hands.

"She did me a favour," the 54-year-old blonde tells the News of the World. "She has now become ME, having to look after Ronnie full-time. And I have now become HER - free and single."

Letting rip with a volley of laughter, Jo adds: "When she was crowing about winning Ronnie from me, I just thought, 'You can have him'.

"I did my 31 years with him. But my time was up when I finally caught him cheating. And it was time for me to do something else."

The former model has emerged with flying colours from the dark days last July when Ronnie, 61, took off on a booze-and-sex bender with Ekaterina and then set up home with her.

She's stepping out in Strictly Come Dancing . . . and stepping out in a new life too after giving her wedding ring a proper FUNERAL.

Jo reveals: "A well-wisher sent me a coffin ring box out of the blue. When I opened it, I just thought, 'how fabulous!' I did a little ceremony and in the ring went.

"I now keep the box on a shelf of what was Ronnie's old bar in the house which I have turned into a coffee bar.

"I've packed his clothes away and taken his pictures down. It was hard at first, but now it's completely fine. By Christmas I was pretty 'RW-clear' in the house."

When we meet in the stunning £12 million family home she used to share with Ronnie in Kingston, Surrey, the only reminders of him are 20-or-so guitars haphazardly stacked in the conservatory.

"They're Ronnie's," she says, rolling her eyes before adding with a mischievous grin: "I was thinking of putting them on eBay."

We talk about their split - how she used to loyally believe he had NEVER had any other affairs and how she would NEVER take him back now. And also how she's moving on with her life and can't wait to fall in LOVE again.

Jo reveals how the collapse of their 31-year relationship - 24 of them married-started when she discovered a text sent to him from Ekaterina. She says that what made this fling different from all the others Ronnie is rumoured to have had, is that she had PROOF he was cheating.

"He always denied his affairs - he's VERY good at doing that - and I always believed in him so much, I never thought he would cheat," says Jo who raised four children with him - Leah, 30 Tyrone, 25, Jamie, 34 - her son from her first marriage - and Jesse, 32, Ronnie's son from a previous relationship.

"I'd met Ekaterina a couple of times. She was very sweet and I had no idea what was going on. Then I found a text message on Ronnie's phone - and thought: 'Omigod, what's going on here?' "I can't tell you what it said because Ronnie would kill me. If I told you, you'd die.

"I just thought, 'Nah, Jo, this is not right'. And then I was like a little detective. And I found out. And that was it. If I don't know something, I can live with it. But if I know something, then I can't. My pride stepped in."

Source:News of the World

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